Master Shapeshifters: A Guide to Character Disguises

Everyone’s favorite shapeshifting item is a Druid, hands down. But what if you want something a little more uncommon? Perhaps you’re looking for a fun disguise to use on boss-kill screenshots, or you’re just not that interested in trolls and would rather farm something else. How’s turning into a fish sound? A huge bug? A neon rock? Maybe you just want to be surrounded in a purple swirly shield instead? Whatever you’re interested in turning into, it probably exists in-game and we have it all laid out for you.

This guide breaks it down into playable race, creature, and object disguises, as well as items that give your character special effects. We’ve further organized these items by means of acquisition and noted some items that work while mounted or shapeshifted. Not all of these items will work in every zone, but they’re all interesting.

Playable Races

Here you’ll find ways to turn into most every playable race. Some disguises even last through damage taken, making it perfect to confuse the enemy in PvP or if you really hate the available race options for your class. The majority of these disguises remain while mounted and in combat.

Navre-bière is left behind by Brasseur sombrefer in the bar in Profondeurs de Rochenoire. Start talking to him, and he excitedly talks about his new recipe. Eventually, he drinks too much of it and passes out, dropping the Chope de navre-bière. This transforms you into a Dark Iron Dwarf for one hour, with unique armor based on your class. Unfortunately, it looks like a recent patch temporarily broke this dialogue, but GMs claim it will be fixed soon.

Hostile NPCs

Orbe des Sin'dorei drops from any of the bosses in Heroic Terrasse des Magistères. It transforms you into a blood elf, yet you retain your unique armor. Your disguised facial features are based on your own character’s—so head to the barbershop if you’re looking for a special blood-elf transformation.

Beau chapeau de Burgy Cœur-noir is a 100% drop from Burgy Cœur-Noir, a rare-spawn flamboyant gnome pirate ghost in Vash’jir. He has a very high opinion of himself, saying "Feast ye eyes upon the dreadful, clever, all-powerfull, hate-filled, sword-swignin', face-punchin', insult-flingin', and all around handsome, BURGY BLACKHEART." He’s not difficult at all to kill at 85 and if you have low-levels summoned in your party, they can loot the hat for fun. This item has no cooldown and instantly turns you into a spectral pirate gnome when equipped.

Professions

Rayon discombobulateur, made by engineers, turns the target into a Leper Gnome. It only lasts for 12 seconds and has five charges, but the materials required to make more aren’t too bad. Anyone, regardless of their professions, can use it too.

Délice de déviant turns you into a human ninja wearing a unique armor set or a pirate. It requires Poisson déviant which can be fished in Northern Barrens or Wailing Caverns. The recipe, which used to be an extremely rare world drop, has had its droprate buffed in Cataclysm.

Déchiqueteur dimensionnel - Zone 52 and Transporteur ultra-sécurisé : Poste de Toshley have a chance to transform the engineer into one of the following for an hour: male dwarf, female draenei, female gnome, male night elf, female orc, male tauren, male troll, female blood elf. You keep your armor but receive unique facial details. This debuff lasts through death but does not override druid shapeshifts.

Quest

Fierté de Gnomeregan and Fierté des Sombrelances were quest rewards for completing the faction-specific pre-Cataclysm launch events. They turn you into a gnome/troll respectively but sadly, they’re not available in-game anymore. However, many players forgot about these items soon after acquiring them because they were so common. The disguises last for 30 minutes, on a 4 hour cooldown, and work while mounted.

Chapeau de sorcier décoloré is the Horde-only reward for completing Ce n’est qu’un au revoir, the final quest in Azshara. This buff persists through combat, lasts 30 minutes, and has a 30 minute cooldown—but you must keep the hat on to keep the disguise. Like the Orbe de tromperie, you receive a complete new look, armor set, and animations while disguised, but unlike the Orb of Deception, you have a huge variety of random disguises—16 possible options! Alliance, do not faction-change to complete this quest, as it will disappear when you race change back.

Médaillon hanté de Kalytha is available for 5,000g from Tex Vortabobine, a goblin mage in Archmage Xylem’s tower in Azshara. The disguise lasts 30 mintes and through combat, on a 15 minute cooldown. It’s perfect for using in raids if you dislike how your character looks. Kalytha also has a bit of interesting lore behind her—Horde players learn that she, and her fellow mages, were heroes during the Sundering, using their magic to protect ley-lines and hold off the attacks of the Burning Legion.

Flacon de botte en fer is sold by Olut Alegut and Rork Menton-pointu in the Storm Peaks for the low price of 10 Relique d'Ulduar. It transforms you into a dark blue iron dwarf, yet you keep your own weapons. Disguise cannot be kept while mounted and you can only buy it after completing Reliques anciennes. If you use it and then pop the Orb of the Sin'dorei, you will turn into a male blood elf. It’s needed for the Ulduar achievement Mais je suis de votre côté (25 joueurs). Since using this item will classify you as a male character, popping another disguise as an Iron Dwarf will turn you into that option's male character model even if you are a female.

The Orb of Deception is the classic shapeshifting trinket. It’s a world drop from vanilla mobs and is BoE, still fetching a hefty price on the AH. It turns you into a member of the opposing faction complete with low-level armor. Although the item has been in the game for ages, it’s been updated to allow transformations for newer races.

Non-playable Races/Creatures

There are many disguises that let you turn into unplayable races and creatures as well, such as wolves, naga, and snakes. Not many of these items work while mounted, but there’s something absurd here for everyone!

Upon obtaining 5 stacks of Gangresang from fighting various demons around Desolace, you will get Gangrimprégné and turn into a demon for one minute. Works on pets as well--come look like a demo warlock.

Dalaran

Mange-magie is a magical food that can turn you into many things: basilisk, roach, locust, whelp, or wisp. You will be silenced with Magie sauvage for 45 seconds upon transformation but will gain a speed boost. The food also has a chance of granting you a random stat buff. It can be fished up from the Sewers.

Elixir des Entrailles, a clickable vial that spawns randomly around the Underbelly, can do one of three things: turn all NPCs into mages, transform the user into a Flying Wasp, or into a Hungry Tuskarr with +50 fishing skill. The Flying Wasp only lasts in the Underbelly and the Tuskarr in Dalaran. Drinking the potions has no cooldown.

Minigob Manafrappe impishly turns players into sheep in Dalaran. Later, you’ll find a letter from him in the mail containing La Malice, a one-time only wand that polymorphs the target and only works in the city.

Friendly NPC

Bom'bay, a witch doctor in Durotar, casts Vaudou on players who have completed his quests. He offers several options and transformations: a frog, snakes, ghost, chicken, turning drunk, character enlargement, and being thrown into the air.

During Sanssaint, players can trick-or-treat at all Innkeepers. They will either receive a Sac de friandises with masks and magical wands inside, or will be transformed into a critter as a punishment.

Hostile NPCs

Figurine perdue dans le temps is a rare drop from Terokk, a boss that can be summoned every 15 minutes provided you have completed a lengthy quest chain in Skettis. The disguise lasts 5 minutes and is on a 30 minute CD. Players find themselves transformed into one of three possible arkoaa appearances and can do a special dance, but cannot mount up.

Fureur de Forgehargne drops from trash in Blackwing Descent. It's a decent trinket for some dps classes and the use effect transforms you into a dragon.

Volonté de porte-mort was one of the most coveted items in ICC but it also has a fun side-effect: the procs turned the wearer into a variety of Northrend races for 30 seconds, some of which even had dance animations. Players were turned into Vrykul, Iron Dwarves, and Taunka, each with distinct casting animations. You could even mount up in Taunka form too.

Professions

Fiole des sables is crafted by Alchemists who have learned the recipe from Vase canope. This item transforms the player into a two-seater dragon. The materials required are quite expensive but there’s now a special achievement for obtaining one—it’s the Mécabécane of Cataclysm.

Hameçon du maître pêcheur is a reward for winning the Stranglethorn Vale Fishing Contest and turning in Le grand prix. To win the contest, you need to be the first person to fish up and turn in 40 Courbine located all around the zone. This item turns you into a fish that is useful for speedy underwater transportation.

Super-sphère simienne is a Northrend world BoP drop. It turns you into a monkey rolling around in a neon purple ball—a tribute to the game Super Monkey Ball. The purple orb remains for shapeshifted druids in combat. If you use another disguise with this trinket activated, you will turn into that disguise and keep the purple ball.

Character Effects

These items preserve the basic appearance of your character, but with added twists—size changes, transparency, cool NPCs following you around. They’re great to use for screenshots when you want people to know who ‘you’ are but also to stand out. Don’t forget to use your own aresenal of spells for extra effects.

Sac des six démons, a low-level world BoE, does a variety of crazy things—whirlwinds, explodes, summons a Felhunter, and much more.

Célèbre chapeau de don Carlos is a 100% drop from Don Carlos on heroic difficulty in Old Hillsbrad Foothills. It summons a coyote. He patrols the main road so it's possible just to zone in and kill him for the hat.

Epice de bébé, a reward from the Northrend cooking dailies, temporarily decreases the size of your target by 50%. Works on some bosses for extra hilarity.

Two Northrend-era feasts change the size of the player: Petit festin shrinks the player by 30% and Grand festin increases the size of the player.

There are several engineering malfunctions from using the BC-era transporters that last for an hour: some shrink or enlarge your character, while Scission d'âme : Bon gives a golden hue and Scission d'âme : Mauvais ! gives a shadowy effect. These last through death and work while mounted.

Quest

Capuche de Cendrelangue, a quest item for La ruse des Cendrelangues is one of the rare disguises that works on shapeshifted druids, although it lasts for an hour and only works in Tempest Keep. It turns the wearer into a member of the Broken, a similar race to the Draenei.

Don souillé du seigneur démon, from Mannoroth in Well of Eternity, has an on use effect that turns your character shadowy purple with glowing fel green fire--reminiscent of Illidan's transformation at the end of the encounter.

Broche de Varo'then, from Mannoroth in Well of Eternity, has an on use effect that shoots out fiery tendrils from the user's weapon, and can chain between targets.

Zoning into Well of Eternity will buff all non-Night Elves with Illusion d’elfe de la nuit--turning them into Night Elves for the duration of this historical dungeon.

Rogues that have completed all steps of the legendary chain will acquire Crocs du père--that has an on use effect of unfurling wings and falling slowly to the ground.

Objects

You can even turn into inanimate objects. There are numerous quest-related items that temporarily turn you into objects as well, but the problem is that they only work when you’re in a very specific sub-zone and you lose the item once the quest is turned in.

Ambre ancien, a Fossil archaeology rare added in 4.1, shrinks the player and entraps them in a block of neon orange glass. This block lasts through combat and damage.

Graine donneuse de vie are looted by Herbalists as they pick flowers. When consumed, it transforms the player into a common flower, renames them, and provides a quick supply of health and mana. People have used these in PvP to look hidden in the background.

Commentaires

Commentaire de Ashelia

What an in-depth guide, I'm seriously blown away by how this pretty much covers every aspect of disguse I <3. Marque du seigneur dragon used to be my best kept secret, now it will be popular =(

Commentaire de Adamsm

on 2011-05-07T18:35:14-05:00

Alright, can I say I do love the new guides? Well done!

Commentaire de hatman555

on 2011-05-07T18:44:48-05:00

HA! The first thing I thought was, Wow she forgot a ton of them. Then I scrolled down O.o Thank you for putting this together. It makes a great list, and showed me some things I didn't know about.

^_^Hat

Commentaire de Nerraw

on 2011-05-07T18:49:50-05:00

Savory Deviate Delight turns you into a pirate or a ninja, and not just a ninja. Otherwise an excellent guide. I'll definitely be hunting some of these items down. :)

Commentaire de Yevan

on 2011-05-07T18:52:40-05:00

I am sad Déguisement de la barricade was not included. The armor looks kinda awesome on some characters although you can't complete the questline if you wanna keep it and it only works in Twilight Bulwark in Thousand Needles, but oh well.

Commentaire de JasperKazai

on 2011-05-07T19:05:53-05:00

Nice guide. I had no idea that you could still pick up a Furbolg transformation item... At least you have to earn it (and they ramped up the CD).

One small omission: Délice de déviant can also turn you into a human pirate.EDIT: And I was beaten to it.

Commentaire de perculia

on 2011-05-07T20:06:40-05:00

At first I didn't want to include stuff like quest items that work in sub-zones or items that only procced in combat, because that's not that useful for a practical disguise. However since there was some interest in Fury of Angerforge, I might as well stick DBW in too. (Also, I hated the disguise in ICC because it would proc during PvP and I'd forget to have a cancelaura macro for it and be unable to mount.)

Commentaire de olrust

on 2011-05-07T20:16:07-05:00

There's also the Worg Disguise from the quest In Worg's Clothing... Too bad it's not in there, its always been one of my favorites, though I guess it is pretty limited because you can't cast spells, enter combat or leave Howling Fjord without losing it. And you can't finish the quest... On the flip side though it has a small cool down, is usable in-doors, and gives 60% increased run speed.

Edit: My bad it gives an 80% increased run speed.

Commentaire de Interest

on 2011-05-07T21:47:31-05:00

Awesome guide. I was actually checking to see if you missed anything, but I couldn't find too much wrong. You got just about every costume and special effect I can think of (except quest-related stuff which, in my opinion, is too much to bother documenting).

Commentaire de poptarter

on 2011-05-07T21:52:30-05:00

I thought that was a good guide. But if i miss read it then you forgot the Iron Stone Dwarves with the metal things and being able to turn into with the ring or the metal was pretty cool. or even when you turned into a girl troll thing it the snow mountains near dal was breath taking.

Commentaire de perculia

on 2011-05-07T22:00:52-05:00

Marché de Lok'lira is what you mean by girls in the snow mountains, I think? And the Iron Stone Dwarves should be listed under Playable Races/Vendor.

Commentaire de BahamutBBob

on 2011-05-07T23:03:50-05:00

Looks like it's time to see if I can solo heroic Magister's Terrace on my warlock :P (I completely forgot about that orb!)